She Is Returning
by Ryuu-ANBU
Summary: What did Lucius mean in 'Fires of Pompeii? 2 Short stories showing 2 different possibilities. Series 4 Spoilers!


**She Is Returning.**

**Summary: **What did Lucius mean when he said 'She is returning' in Fires of Pompeii? 2 short stories showing what I think are 2 different possibilities. Series 4 Spoilers!

**Disclaimer: **Not mine. But it IS my 21st Birthday soon, maybe if I ask the BBC nicely they'll give me it as a present? Or at least give me David and Billie. Please? No? Awwwwww. That sucks.

**AN: **Just to clear something up before anyone starts asking me anything...I personally believe the FIRST story is what is going to happen. The other story is just a highly unlikely possibility. The first story is what I believe he meant, the second is just something I thought of when bored.

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**Story 1:**

He stood there, staring at her. Unable to believe she was actually here, yet knowing it was true all at the same time. How she'd managed to get back was a mystery to him, but he should have realised one of them found a way. After all, the two of them often had done seven impossible things...and that was before breakfast.

Intending to say something incredibly witty, eloquent and dashing so as to make sure she fell totally in love with him again, he opened his mouth.

"Missed you" was all that came out.

Softly she giggled, in that special way she did, with her tongue poking out between her teeth, silently begging him to swoop in and capture it between his own teeth as he kissed her. Instead, he stayed stood, rooted to the spot.

"Missed you too" she replied softly, almost a whisper, but still managing to make herself heard above the questions Donna and Martha were asking him.

"Who is she Doctor?" was the most prevalent of the questions.

Jack stood silently off to one side, smirking at the Doctor smugly. The Doctor turned to him seriously and said to him something that he felt with all his being.

"Thank you Jack. So much"

"Don't thank me, I just found her and used my back-up 'Doctor Detector' to find you" came the reply in the American accent that even a couple of centuries of living in England hadn't managed to wipe out.

Suddenly, the Doctor found his face full of red. Red hair, sitting atop and angry looking red face.

"OI MISTER! Don't you ignore me! Who. Is. She?" each of the last three words punctuated by a jab to his chest from Donna's finger.

"Donna Noble, Martha Jones...meet Rose Tyler, Defender of the Earth, Time Traveller and the person who saved my life and made me fall head over heels in love with her"

And with those words, he dropped all sense of decorum, pushed Donna out of the way and practically flattened Rose in his haste to be close to her, to feel her in his arms, and to smell her unique scent filling his nose once again.

"Rose?"

"Doctor?" Came the shaky reply

"I love you"

No further words were spoken for the next hour, or two.

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**Story 2:**

This was impossible. And he didn't just mean the sort of impossible he and Rose used to do every single day, he meant the sort of impossible where it just can't happen. At all. Ever.

But here it was, in all it's old glory.

Gallifrey.

With it's red grass and silver leaved tress. The Citadel dominating the skyline that his screen showed. At first he'd simply put it down to a glitch in the TARDIS. Maybe the old girl was feeling a bit homesick now that Rose had managed to return. But every single scan he'd run had said the same thing.

They weren't in Atlantis as he'd been aiming for, intending to show Rose the fabled lost city. Instead, he was back here. Not home. It had never truly been home for him until it was too late, and only then had he appreciated it.

And now he was back. Despite the fact that it should be just an area of dust, debris and asteroids.

"Doctor?" came Rose's soft voice from beside him, obviously sensing something was wrong.

"Yes Rose?" he replied, equally as softly, still in shock from what he was seeing.

"What's wrong?"

He could hear the care and love in her voice as she looked at him. He could also hear the worry too. Nothing had ever shaken him this much. Well, almost nothing. Losing her had shaken him to the core, and nothing would ever truly heal the pain from that.

"We can't be here" came the eventual reply to her question

"Why?"

"Because this place doesn't exist anymore, well...it does, and it doesn't. It's...complicated" his voice was almost a whisper now, and she had to struggle to hear it.

"Like us you mean?" she said teasingly, trying to raise his spirits.

He shot her a quick grin and gave her a quick kiss.

"So...where are we then Doctor and why does this place exist but not exist?"

The single word he said sent shivers down her spine and explained everything.

"Gallifrey"

Nodding, she suddenly understood his reticence to exit the TARDIS. Then she noticed something on the screen.

"Doctor. Look"

Quickly, he let go of her and looked back at the screen.

"A welcoming party. Doubt they'll be pleased to see me, I killed them all remember?"

He grimaced, then straightened his back resolutely and started striding towards the door, faltering slightly when he noticed Rose was only a half-step beside him.

"Rose..."

"Don't even think about it. I love you. I'm not going to let you face them alone"

He nodded, and together they stepped outside the door, unknowing of what the greeting would be from the delegation approaching them, but determined to face it together.

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**AN: **Like I said. Just 2 short stories. They may not be long, but I like them. It's up to you to decide if these two stories go together or stand alone. My intention was for them to stand alone, but I suppose the way I wrote them allows them to go together.

Also, originally, there were 3 stories, but in the last one I just basically repeated bits from both of the ones before, it was based on a rumour I've heard about Season 4...which I'm not gonna say because I don't wanna spoil it for people.

Anyway. Hope you enjoyed it, please let me know what you thought.

(Not)TheTinDog


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